My name is Stephanie Woolf and this is the journey of my life as a missionary in the Dominican Republic Santiago Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Thursday, September 19, 2013 - Week 4

Hola familia! How are
you all? I got a letter from everyone in our family this week!!! Thank you
everyone! I love hearing from you! I got 11 emails and 3 dear elders today so I
am feeling SUPER loved! :) Well this has been kind of a crazy week! Really good
but crazy. I went contacting at the University last week! I can't tell you how
scared I was going into it. The Spanish we learn and Dominican Spanish are way
different. They talk so fast and drop all their S's and slur all their words
together so it's very difficult to understand. But it was SO GOOD! I loved it!
We talked to 7 people, handed out 3 Book of Mormons (That's all we were given)
and 7 pamphlets with the missionaries' phone numbers on them. I couldn't
believe I knew what they were saying and especially that I could speak so much!
It was incredible. There was this one guy that we talked to that already knew
about Joseph Smith and Christ coming to the Americas. We taught him a little
about the Book of Mormon and he asked us for the number of the missionaries so
he could contact them. It was so neat! We're going out again tomorrow for
contacting! So we got all of our new missionaries here now. There were 38
elders and 2 sisters. We are slowly getting to know them. We're teaching this
investigator (fake) right now that didn't believe in God or think anyone loved
her. She even tried to take her life before. We are really getting through to
her though. We testify and testify of what we know about God and how much he
loves us and constantly ask how she's feeling about what we're teaching and she
always feels the spirit. It is so cool. It feels so real. So my companions and
I were asked to be the leaders over the sisters while we're here! It basically
means we look after the sisters and go to the leadership meetings with the
President, District Leaders, and APs every week. It's a cool responsibility. I
feel so much closer to the other sisters because I'm trying to look out for
them. So on Sunday I was randomly selected to give a talk on the Restoration in
Spanish. Haha. It was pretty scary. I got to prepare it beforehand though and
luckily all the new missionaries didn't even know what I was saying. Lol.
Then I gave our district meeting Sunday School lesson the next hour on having
patience and diligence in our missions. And with only 5 sisters, I participated
a lot in Relief Society too. I think I've participated more in Sunday this week
than the whole last month of church before I left. Haha. It's so good though.
I'm learning really fast. So one of the sisters that came, Hermana Ali, has
been really sick the past year and a couple days ago she passed out in our
room. She passed out like 20 times over the last couple days. It was really
scary. We've been taking good care of her though. It was the sweetest thing.
The first time she passed out, when she came back to conscienceness she said,
"Yo se que Jesucristo es el Salvador". She had no idea she said that
but it was so cool. She didn't even know Spanish. Anyways, she was sent home
this morning because there is no way she can serve in this condition. She felt
really bad to leave just after a week but I think she came here just to meet us
and touch our lives. She is amazing.

So I still haven't
gotten your package. I know it said it was delivered, but the mail is really
bad here. There are missionaries that had parents send them letters before they
even left home and they haven't gotten here yet. I'm sure it will come soon.
And the letters haven't gotten here yet either. Really the best way to reach me
is through Dear Elder. It comes every week, usually Wednesday or Thursday.
Thanks for telling everyone my email address and giving me the addresses of
everyone in the fam! So my shoes are really fine. I'm not too worried about it.
I've heard they let us wear sandles in Santiago so maybe I'll just get some
there later. My health is good. They feed us a lot here, but I only eat like
1/3 of what they give me usually. Mostly because the meat is mystery meat.
Haha. But we have gym time every day that we usually go outside and play
volleyball or something. And we have to climb 4 flights of stairs about 10
times a day so when I get back I'm gonna be able to climb more than Dad! Haha.
I think I've actually lost a little weight. But everyone says when you get out
in the field you lose like 20 pounds in 3 weeks. I'm not too worried about it.
So spanish is coming very fast. I understand much more than I can speak but I
still am amazed how much I know so far. Thanks for sending me that story Dad! I
loved it! And thanks for the DearElder letter too! Well I'm sorry I couldn't
write the rest of the fam this week! Hopefully I can write more next week! I
love you all so much!! You are the world to me!